Working as Planned (SNAFU)  by Tom Reynolds

Because of NY State’s new laws on background checks for ammunition purchases, Tom King, the head of NYS Rifle & Pistol Association, was denied when he tried to purchase .410 shotgun shells in Rensselear County.

King has had a pistol permit for more than 40 years and has indicated that he will go through the appeals process.  He cannot buy ammunition until the appeals process is concluded.

A person who had been denied has 30 days to appeal and the NYS Police have 30 days to respond and explain the reason for the denial.

King said, “The only person that this is affecting is the lawful legal citizen of New York State.  We’re the ones being discriminated against.”

___________________________________________

Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone told the Post-Journal:.

“On Sept. 22, I attempted to purchase two boxes of shotgun shells at a local sports store. These shells were to be used at a trap/skeet shoot that I was sponsoring to raise funds for a new nonprofit organization.”

“Prior to being permitted to purchase the ammunition, the store spent the 15 minutes or so entering my data in their computer to complete the background check.  The status came back ‘Delayed.’ We waited another 15 minutes with no update, so I had to leave the store without completing the purchase.”

Approval for Quattrone’s purchase didn’t come for another 25 hours — one hour after the fundraiser ended…

__________________________________

Per Cornell’s Legal Information Institute:

Federal regulation 28 CFR § 25.11 Prohibited activities and penalties (concerning use of the NICS system.)

(a) State or local agencies, FFLs, or individuals violating this subpart A shall be subject to a fine not to exceed $10,000 and subject to cancellation of NICS inquiry privileges.

(b) Misuse or unauthorized access includes, but is not limited to, the following:

(2) State or local agencies', FFLs', or individuals' purposefully using the system to perform a check for unauthorized purposes; (background checks on ammo purchases would be an unauthorized purpose.) 

The ongoing Gazzola lawsuit contends that New York State’s new ammunition background checks system violates the above regulation because the FBI is only authorized to use the NICS system to do background checks on firearms transfers.  NYS Police employees are manually entering individual ammunition background check data from their new system, by hand, into the federal FBI-NICS system in violation of 28 CFR §25.11

In simple terms, using the federal NICS system to do background checks on ammunition purchases is illegal.

_________________________________

Governor Hochul was recently in Israel for some unknown reason other than shoring up political support amongst Jews.  While in Israel, Hochul was spotted wearing body armor.  Last year, Hochul signed into law a ban on the sale of body armor to most people. 

She was probably protected by armed guards, just as she is in NY State which is another thing that she would prevent ordinary citizens for enjoying.

_________________________________

Reports are pouring in about delays and denials under the new ammunition background checks.  It’s up to the Superintendent of the NY State Police to fix the system.  As SCOPE pointed out on Wednesday, the current Superintendent is: “to be named later.”

______________________________________

Aaron Dorr, Executive Director of NYS Firearms Association had this to say about Hochul’s new scheme: “This is blatantly unconstitutional. 100%. And that was before last year’s Bruen decision. Post Bruen, this is nothing more than a middle finger from Kathy Hochul to gun owners. The Bruen decision made it clear that ANY current or future gun control laws needed to show a ‘historical precedent’ or they would immediately be deemed unconstitutional. There is ZERO historical precedent for registering people who buy ammunition. And that goes doubly true for requiring gun owners to pay a tax to the government for the ‘privilege!’”

___________________________________

Does Hochul care?

Is the state working day-and-night to fix the system?

Hochul probably relishes the delays.

She doesn’t care because she is doing exactly what her wealthy benefactors, and what the Biden Administration, and what those citizens residing in New York City who voted her into Office, want her to do. Hochul knows she is on safe ground politically on this as well as not having any personal liability, and that is all that matters to her—at least at this moment.

Will this change as increasing violent crime and the frustration of the ammo purchasing public ramps up?